Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced that she will run in the upcoming European Parliament elections, citing her efforts to strengthen her far-right party, even though she will be forced to resign immediately.
Her Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, topped Italy's 2022 general election with 26% of the vote. With Meloni topping the list of candidates, the "Brothers of Italy" could capitalize on their national popularity, although EU rules require any winner who already holds a ministerial position to resign immediately. "We want to do in Europe exactly what we did in Italy on September 25, 2022 - create a majority that unites the forces of the right to finally send the left into opposition, even in Europe!" Meloni said at an event in the Adriatic city of Pescara. In an impassioned, wide-ranging speech that briefly touched on issues from surrogacy and Ramadan to artificial meat, Meloni praised his coalition government's year and a half in power and its efforts to fight illegal immigration, protect families and Christian values.
After speaking for more than an hour in a combative tone reminiscent of her election campaigns, Meloni said she had decided to run for a seat in the European Parliament. "I'm doing it because I want to ask Italians if they're happy with the work we're doing in Italy and the work we're doing in Europe," she said, hinting that only she could unite Europe's conservatives. "I am doing it because, in addition to being the leader of the Brothers of Italy, I am also the leader of the European conservatives who want to have a decisive role in changing the course of European politics," she added. In her rise to power as leader of the Brothers of Italy, Meloni frequently denounced the European Union, the "LGBT lobby" and what she called the politically correct rhetoric of the left, attracting many voters with her outspokenness. "I'm Giorgia, I'm a woman, I'm a mother, I'm Italian, I'm a Christian," she declared at a rally in 2019. She used a similar tone in Pescara, urging voters to simply write "Giorgia" on their ballots. "I have always been, am, and always will be proud to be an ordinary person," she cried. EU rules require "the credentials of newly elected MEPs to be checked to ensure that they do not hold a position incompatible with being a member of the European Parliament", including a government minister. The strategy has been used before, most recently in Italy in 2019 by Meloni's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right League party. The European Parliament elections do not foresee alliances in the Italian parties, which means that the Brothers of Italy will be in direct competition with their coalition partners the League and Forward Italy, founded by Silvio Berlusconi. The two formations have about 7% and 8% support respectively. /BGNES, AFP
